Did you know that thinking quietly about happy moments may not only provide additional boost to your mood but also be a better way of feeling happiness than writing about or analyzing these joys?  In an elegantly-designed study published in 2006 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Dr. Lyubomirsky and colleagues asked participants to identify one of the happiest days they had ever experienced, and then instructed them in one of the following conditions: a) think about the positive life experience and replay it over and over; b) think about the positive life experience and analyze their thoughts; c) write about the positive life experience over and over as if rewinding and replaying a cassette tape; or d) write about the positive life experience and analyze the event.  Each participant was asked to engage in their particular condition for 15 minutes for 3 days, and then participants were re-evaluated four weeks later.  Can you guess what the researchers found?  They found that long-term positive affect (continuing to feel happiness, joy, etc.) four weeks later was most profound for condition A, in which participants thought about the positive life experience, replaying it over and over without analyzing it.

What does this mean for you?  Thinking and reminiscing about your positive life events, your joys, your triumphs, your “happy thoughts” on a regular basis can help sustain your good mood.  Try to avoid analyzing the good event, just relish in it.